Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Allowable And Acceptable Don't Mean Safe

"Radiation levels at the site are reported to be 1,015 micro-Sieverts per hour. This is roughly equivalent to 100 millirems/hour. The allowable annual dose for members of the public from nuclear facilities in the US is 100 millirems/year, under Energy Department guidelines. In other words, hourly radiation levels around Fukushima are now at what is considered acceptable for the general public in a full year.""Japanese and US standards are roughly equivalent, although Japanese authorities use Sieverts to measure dosages and the US uses rems. The Sievert unit used in Europe and Japan equals 100 rems."